Kate Nelson, Reporter
Wednesday,
September 14, 2011
2:45 PM
Residents are “horrified” by golf course redevelopment plans which would mean an extra 140 lorries travelling past their rural homes every day for a year
Cherry Lodge Golf Course, in Jail Lane, Biggin Hill, wants to remodel 11 of its 18 holes by reshaping it with 250,000 cubic metres of “inert material”.
The Environment Agency defines inert material as insoluble minerals such as glass, concrete and brick.
The work would take around 12 months to complete, with 70 deliveries per day between the hours of 9am and 4.30pm. That equates to roughly one every three minutes.
Jail Lane is too narrow for the lorries to enter the site so the golf club would have to build a six-metre wide access road which would run alongside agricultural fields on privately owned land, which the owner has given consent for.
Members of Biggin Hill Residents’ Association met on Monday night to discuss the plans.
Chairman David Haslam said: “We are horrified. We want everybody in Biggin Hill and the surrounding areas to object to the plans.
“The application says there would be 70 deliveries per day but these large lorries don’t disappear then – they have to make a return journey so the figure is doubled.
“The likelihood is that the lorries will come from Bromley and Croydon so that means most will come through Biggin Hill. To get to Main Road you have to travel down some very narrow roads. How will these lorries cope with them?”
The Times approached the golf club for comment but nobody was available. Cherry Lodge is working with Woodlands Environmental, a landscaping company with 25 years of expertise in remodelling golf courses using inert waste.
Nobody from Woodlands Environmental was available either but the company’s website states: “It is clear that the waste recovery and recycling industry will be a key player in achieving current and future waste reduction targets.”
Bromley council has sent out letters to residents in the Biggin Hill vicinity but no date has been set to hear the application.
It can be viewed at: www.bromley.gov.uk (ref 11/02499/FULL1).
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